Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney trotted out his education platform this week — nearly six months after the first presidential primary in Iowa — and if you closed your eyes, you would have thought you had been transported back in time and were listening to former president George W. Bush.

Romney said he would:

Convert the largest federal program dedicated to low-income students (Title I) and children with disabilities and special needs (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA) into a national voucher program.

Expand the Washington, D.C., voucher program that President Barack Obama has moved to eliminate.

Repeal the law signed by President Obama that eliminates banks as middle men on federally guaranteed student loans and uses those savings to increase Pell Grants, strengthen community colleges and make it easier for students to repay their federal student loans.

Van Roekel’s reference to “key education players” was Romney’s introduction this week of his education advisers. They include Rod Paige, the Secretary of Education under George W. Bush who called the National Education Association a “terrorist organization”; Tom Luna, the Idaho superintendent of public instruction who was the architect of bills to increase class sizes, reduce the teaching force, replace teachers with mandatory online classes and erode educator rights; and Nina Rees, who as President Bush’s Secretary for Innovation and Improvement pushed passage of the No Child Left Behind Act and schemes to direct public school funds to private schools.

Music teacher Steven Morris, seated across from Romney, responded, “I can’t think of any teacher in the whole time I’ve been teaching, for 10 years, 13 years, who would say that more students [in the classroom] would benefit. And I can’t think of a parent that would say I would like my teacher to be in a room with a lot of kids and only one teacher.”

This week we talk about a rally for public education in WI, educators striking for class size in WA, CEA President supports excise tax repeal in CT and a majority of Pennsylvanians support the governor’s historic education budget increases.